How to Easily Use Large Type in Applications

Apple’s Address Book offers a large type option, and so does Quicksilver, two of my favorite programs. Is there an easy way to get large-type messages from iCal and other apps?

Many apps use keyboard shortcuts to enlarge the type. For example, in Mail and Entourage, you can press Command-+ to bump up the size of the displayed text, and Command-- (hyphen) to nudge it back down again. The same trick works in Safari and Firefox, and as a bonus, Command-0 (zero) resets it to the intended size. So try those first, Command-+ and Command--, to see if they work.

Other applications vary. Microsoft Office apps, for example, have a drop-down showing the percentage (also in View > Zoom), so bump that up to 150 or 200 percent to get a closer look. So do Adobe applications.

iPhoto has a setting in Preferences > Appearance to set the Source Text to large or small. But that only affects the Source list in the panel on the left. And using the Zoom slider only changes the size of your Event or Photo thumbnails, not the text under them. We couldn’t find a setting to enlarge the text in iCal. iTunes > Preferences > General lets you set the size (small or large) for the Source Text and List Text. Finder’s View > View Options dialog lets you resize your Desktop icons and the text beneath them.

Universal Access has a Zoom function that works, but isn’t exactly what you’re looking for.

If you want a more universal option, check out the Mac’s built-in Universal Access settings, which are designed to help people with disabilities get more use from their Macs. In System Preferences > Universal Access, under the Seeing tab, you can enable the Zoom feature and then use it by pressing Command-Option-= to zoom in, or Command-Option-- (hyphen) to zoom back out. It zooms the entire screen, though, not just the text. So some parts of the screen will “bleed out” of the edges of your display. You can fine-tune how the zoomed screen follows your pointer and whether the images should be smoothed (hint: they should be) in the Options dialog. You can also hold down Control and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in on your mouse pointer.

Alternatively, you could change the resolution of your display to make everything look bigger. Head to System Preferences > Displays and experiment with bumping back the resolution by a step or two, although that will also resize everything (not just text) and leads to blurriness.

Finally, you can turn to software for help. Macnifier (free, subrosasoft.com) lets you select a portion of your screen, which it then opens, magnified, in a new window. And TinkerTool (free, bresink.com) will let you specify fonts and font sizes for applications to use if they don’t have specific fonts already configured.